Synopsis:

Andrew Martin is a robot. More to the point, he is an android. In 2005 he was powered up and sent by the NorthAm Company to be a personal assistant and servant to the Martin family. From the very first moment of his operation, Andrew has been more man than machine. While a personality "chip" was installed in his positronic brain, it was never activated. Yet somehow, Andrew manifested a personality, sense of humor and distinct "human emotions". When brought to the attention of the NorthAm Company, their first instinct is to dismantle Andrew and extensively review his neural net. Unwilling to allow his companion to be destroyed, Mr. Martin (Sam Neill) takes the "feeling " Andrew back home where he serves the family from it's infancy to adulthood and inevitable death. Aware of his uniqueness, Andrew seeks the help of the Martin's daughter-"Little Miss" in locating more of his kind. Sadly, all he finds are either reprogrammed unfriendly automatons or the broken remnants of "dead" robots. All seems lost for him until he encounters Rupert Burns (Oliver Platt), a scientist who sees the world with distinctly better eyes than most. With Rupert's help, Andrew is that much closer to culminating his 200-year journey to becoming something more than the sum of his programming. Bicentennial Man is a touching, portrait of a man in the making!

Audio/Video:

The audio for Bicentennial Man is blistering! From the opening title sequence to Andrew's declaration of the three laws of robotics, to the bustling future cities, the audio has all sorts of effects buzzing about your theater! It's produced in Dolby 5.1 and it's one of the best I've heard. The end titles reflected a DTS encoding so, when it's re-released (and I'm sure it will be) It may contain both the Dolby Digital as well as the DTS audio tracks. There really aren't any "quiet" moments in this particular presentation primarily because something's always going on on-screen. Great depth of field, crystalline center and the activity from right to left, front to rear is very nicely presented. The sub is also put to good use in more of a punctuation sort of feel than an over all presence. That's not to say that the sub is inactive in any way. Quite the contrary, the audio for this feature is definitely what I would categorize as aggressive. Great audio presence all around.

The Video is just as good as the audio in its presentation. Crystal clear widescreen image with no transfer errors detectable. The colors were rich and well saturated and the fleshtones were true. Additionally, the black level was dead on and the overall presentation was quite beautiful. Oh yeah, almost forgot..It's anamorphic as well!!!!!

Extras:

Robin Williams and Chris Columbus have teamed up on three features, Patch Adams, Mrs. Doubtfire and now Bicentennial Man. In the previous two efforts, the discs were loaded with all kinds of extras. Mrs. Doubtfire was reissued as a Special Edition and Patch Adams was released as such on its initial run. Bicentennial Man however has a preview trailer for Music from the Heart, the trailer for the film, and a 25 minute behind-the-scenes segment on the making of the feature. Robin Williams is known for his antics that everyone loves to see and you can't even include a brief segment on this disc?! The outtakes segment on Patch Adams is the funniest part of the disc and it may be 10 minutes long! There has got to be a wealth of supplemental materials just waiting to be included! I bought this disc in a moment of weakness. Primarily because I am a great fan of Robin Williams' work. I am fairly disappointed at the lack of bonus materials but I knew that coming in. In any event. For a film of this type, there is no excuse for it's tremendous lack of extras.

Overall:

Bicentennial Man is a wonderful moving film that has the benefit of great direction and Robin Williams' enormous genius. There's a great deal of humor and some sadness but it's a top-notch film in every regard. I'd hold off on buying it until an SE is announced though. The price point is rather staggering ($25) for a relatively bare bones disc. I love this movie and will probably end up buying the SE when it's announced as well. In any event, this film is definitely worth checking out and easily recommended. Had there been "real" extras included, I would highly recommend it however, with it's lack of extras, I don't feel comfortable Highly recommending this title. Recommended